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100 days in office Vajpayee govt gets good rating

NEW DELHI: Corporate India gave the government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee a pat on the back as it completed 100 days in office on Friday.

A survey of 128 corporate chiefs and senior managers conducted by the Economic Times newspaper showed that 75 percent were satisfied with the government's performance, including seven percent who gave it an "excellent" rating.

Only two percent of respondents said the government had done a "poor" job. Vajpayee's multi-party coalition Ñ headed by his own Hindu natinalist BJP party Ñ was returned to power after elections spanning September and October.

The government promised to usher in second generation economic reforms, and has succeeded in pushing through key reforms, such as a bill opening the insurance sector to private and foreign companies.

On the pace of reforms, 69 percent of industry chiefs surveyed by the newspaper gave a rating of "good" or better, while four percent said it was still too slow.

Respondents were also upbeat about the future, with 56 percent replaying "yes, very much" to a question on whether they saw any growth prospects for their businesses in the coming year. AFP